Chapter 4: Talent Upgrade

For a full thirty minutes, Wu Shaochen kept whittling away at the turtle’s health, and now, with the final strike landed, he watched excitedly as the bloodied Sea Turtle slowly collapsed and died. As the last drop of HP disappeared, the giant turtle’s massive body finally fell to the ground in unwilling defeat. Right then, a system notification chimed in.

“Ding, you have slain [Sea Turtle], gained 15 EXP. Bonus 50% EXP (7 points) for killing a monster 5 levels higher (fractions ignored).”

“Ding, Talent Trait activated. Poison Damage increased by 1 point. Deals 2 true damage per second to the target.”

“Nice!” Wu Shaochen exclaimed with excitement after hearing the system notification. He gained 22 experience points in one go—way faster than fighting for rabbits at the village entrance. Most importantly, his Talent got upgraded. That was the real win. From now on, killing Sea Turtles would take half the time.

He quickly ran over to the Sea Turtle’s corpse. On the ground were two copper coins and—surprisingly—a piece of gear. Wu Shaochen eagerly picked them up. An equipment drop! Even with the 50% increased drop rate for killing monsters five levels higher, drops in Oracle were notoriously stingy. Getting an item from the first kill was absolutely a lucky break!

He took a look at the gear—it was a pair of shoes.

【Canvas Shoes】
Quality: White
+3 Movement Speed
+2 Physical Defense
Equipment Requirement: None

Not bad at all—just what he needed. He quickly equipped them. His movement speed went up to 8, and defense also reached 8.

In Oracle, equipment quality from lowest to highest is: White – Black Iron – Bronze – Silver – Gold – Dark Gold – Platinum – Diamond – Starshine – Immortal – Sacred – Divine – Super Divine.

White-tier gear in the early game has no requirements. Only Black Iron and above do. Black Iron items start to include bonus stats, and Gold gear begins to grant additional skills.

After putting on the shoes, he could even feel a slight boost in his walking speed. In a cheerful mood, Wu Shaochen continued looking for the next Sea Turtle. These turtles felt tailor-made for him. The only downside was their low spawn count. After a bit of searching, he finally saw one sunbathing lazily on the beach.

Wu Shaochen ran straight up and slashed at the turtle’s shell with his sword, then turned and bolted. Still, he got bitten once. Early on, without a big advantage in attack and movement speed, dodging enemy attacks was nearly impossible.

-2, -2, -2

White damage indicators floated above the Sea Turtle’s head as it slowly chased after Wu Shaochen.

This time, the kill speed had clearly improved. It only took 15 minutes before the pitiful Sea Turtle collapsed in tears. Wu Shaochen quickly picked up the two copper coins it dropped and went off to find the next target.

He kept hunting down Sea Turtles one by one. Thanks to his Talent upgrade, the time needed to kill each one kept shrinking. The third took 10 minutes, the fourth 7 and a half, and the fifth was done in 6 minutes. Then, another system prompt chimed in:

“Ding, you have slain [Sea Turtle], gained 22 EXP. EXP full. Congratulations, you’ve leveled up! HP +20, MP +10, 5 free attribute points awarded. Please allocate wisely.”

Finally leveled up! That was a pretty fast pace, Wu Shaochen thought to himself. Staring at the five free attribute points, he hesitated briefly, then decisively dumped them all into Agility. The only reason he could kill a level 5 Sea Turtle was because it was slower than him. To fully capitalize on his Talent, increasing speed through Agility was the obvious choice.

After the level-up and point allocation, his stats had changed: HP rose from 50 to 70, MP from 50 to 60, Agility from 5 to 10, and Movement Speed jumped from 8 to 13. The rest stayed the same. He checked his EXP:

EXP: 10/300

Going from level 1 to 2 takes 300 EXP—not bad at all. Just around ten more Sea Turtles.

Now Wu Shaochen was wondering whether to keep grinding turtles or head somewhere else to fight level 6 wild monsters. Turtles were safer and the leveling speed wasn’t bad either, but the problem was, now that he had reached level 2, the 5-level gap was gone, so his Talent’s passive no longer triggered.

“Too bad you don’t lose levels when you die in the Novice Village. Otherwise, I’d totally let the turtles kill me just to drop back to level 0 and grind the Talent all over again—how awesome would that be?” Wu Shaochen thought.

“Whatever, let’s go explore elsewhere for now. With my current 13 Movement Speed, I’m probably faster than most monsters. Maybe I’ll find something more suitable for triggering the Talent. If not, I’ll come back to farm turtles. No harm in trying.”

Having made up his mind, Wu Shaochen turned around and started heading back. He’d already reached the edge of the map—any further and it would be ocean. Retracing his steps, he returned to the three-way intersection and went into the forest on the left. The bamboo grove up ahead had poor visibility and was prone to ambushes. Monsters above level 5 are aggressive, and he definitely couldn’t tank those with his current squishy build.

The lighting in the forest was decent because the trees were spaced far apart. Wu Shaochen walked cautiously until suddenly, a pitch-black Wild Boar burst out from behind a tree. Its tusks gleamed menacingly, and its eyes locked onto him. It scraped the ground with its front hooves, then charged at him with incredible speed.

“Cao! No honor at all!” Wu Shaochen shouted in shock. Just as the boar was about to crash into him, he narrowly sidestepped. The Wild Boar brushed past his sleeve and slammed into a tree ahead. Stars appeared over its head—it was stunned.

Wu Shaochen patted his chest. Thank goodness he’d dumped all his points into Agility. Otherwise, there was no way he would’ve dodged that. He quickly cast Insight.

【Wild Boar】
Level: 6
HP: 2000
Physical Attack: 70
Physical Defense: 30
Speed: 11
Skill: Savage Charge – Charges forward in a straight line at high speed, dealing 150% physical damage to all targets in its path and stunning them for 1 second. Cooldown: 10 seconds

Wu Shaochen clicked his tongue. This is a level 6 monster? Oracle really doesn’t pull its punches. If he hadn’t dodged that just now, he’d probably already be on a free trip back to town.

Should he fight it? Or go back to bullying little turtles? Wu Shaochen was torn. It was doable. The Wild Boar’s attack was 70, but he had 70 HP and 8 defense—he could survive one normal hit. His speed was also higher, so he could kite it. But that skill was a problem—if he got hit, it was instant return to town. He couldn’t guarantee he’d dodge every time. The only reason he escaped earlier was because the boar was far enough away to react.

If the boar charged while he was mid-auto attack? Game over.

“Screw it. Let’s go.” Right now, his Talent’s poison did 6 damage per second. Killing one Wild Boar would take just over 5 minutes. That risk seemed worth it.

With that thought, Wu Shaochen charged toward the Wild Boar. Its skill was on cooldown, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d get gored. He slashed at the boar’s back.

-1 (no armor break, forced damage)
-6 (poison damage)

But the Wild Boar wasn’t having any of it. With a swipe of its tusks:

-62

Wu Shaochen scrambled away. Then, a terrifying realization hit him—he had completely overlooked one critical problem: HP regeneration.

It took 10 seconds out of combat to start regenerating. That meant he had only 50 seconds to heal 50 HP. But to survive the boar’s next attack, he’d need at least 63 HP. If he waited until he hit 63 before jumping back in, the poison would have stopped ticking for 13 seconds, and the Wild Boar would heal 1% of its HP per second out of combat—about 60 HP over 3 seconds.

That would greatly extend the time needed to kill it.

“Ugh, no wonder level 6 monsters aren’t easy. Still, since I’ve already started… there’s no turning back.”